Filling Cavities in Semiconductor Structures

ABSTRACT

High aspect ratio trenches may be filled with metal that grows more from the bottom than the top of the trench. As a result, the tendency to form seams or to close off the trench at the top during filling may be reduced in some embodiments. Material that encourages the growth of metal may be formed in the trench at the bottom, while leaving the region of the trench near the top free of such material to encourage growth upwardly from the bottom.

BACKGROUND

This relates to semiconductor processing and, particularly, to techniques for filling cavities.

A high aspect ratio cavity is a cavity, hole, depression, or trench whose depth is twice its width or more. Because of the high aspect ratio, cavity filling tends to be problematic. For example, in the course of filling such cavities, seam formation may result. A seam is basically an opening or crack within the filled material. The seam is then prone to subsequent etching in ensuing processing. Another possibility is the formation of overhangs near the top of the trench which close off the trench and prevent complete filling of the trench.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view of one embodiment at an early stage of manufacture;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view subsequent thereto in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view subsequent thereto in accordance with one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view in accordance with another embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view subsequent thereto in accordance with the embodiment of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is an enlarged, cross-sectional view subsequent thereto in accordance with one embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIG. 1, a high aspect ratio cavity 16 may be defined in a semiconductor structure 10 including a dielectric material 14, such as a silicon dioxide dielectric material. The cavity may be formed in a dielectric material made up of a number of different layers in some embodiments. In one embodiment, the dielectric material 14 is over a semiconductor substrate 12, such as a silicon substrate.

In one conventional application, the substrate 12 may have a silicide 22 formed therein. The silicide may be covered by a metal layer 20. For example, the metal layer 20 may be titanium and the silicide 22 may be titanium silicide.

The metal layer 20 may be covered by a liner or layer 18 which partially lines the vertical extent of the cavity 16, covers the metal layer 20, and extends all the way down past the metal layer 20 to the substrate 12 in one embodiment.

Generally, the layer 18 is a thin, conformal layer or layers which lines the bottom and sidewall of the cavity 16. It may be grown, deposited, or formed using any technique. In one embodiment, the layer 18 may be titanium nitride.

In some embodiments, the layer 18 is an adhesion promoting layer. As used herein, an “adhesion promoting layer” is a layer between two other layers that increases the adhesion between the two other layers.

The cavity 16 may then be cleaned by a pattern dependent etch, a polish or by any technique that removes the upper horizontal portion of the layer 18 and an upper vertical portion of the layer 18 to expose only the upper sidewall portion 28, as shown in FIG. 2. A “pattern dependent etch” is an etch whose etch rate depends on the pattern spacing. Thus, a pattern dependent etch tends to clear the upper sidewall portion 28 because it is more closely spaced than other features exposed directly to the etch. The pattern dependent etch or polish may be tuned to clean more or less of the depth of the cavity by adjusting etch or polish parameters, including processing time, chemistry, and energy.

The etch or polish exposes surfaces of different composition, inside the cavity 16, including the exposed sidewall portion 28, which may be dielectric, for example, and bottom or lower surface of the cavity formed of the layer 18, which may be a metal nitride, for example. These various exposed surfaces may be selected to have different deposition rates for a given deposited material. In such case, the deposited material may be “selectively” deposited on one exposed material because it builds up preferentially on that material. Thus, a material, blanket deposited over the structure, may build up preferentially or even exclusively on one exposed surface, because of the chemical composition of that surface, relative to others of the exposed surfaces.

Thereafter, the exposed surfaces of the cavity may be subjected to chemical vapor deposition, resulting in different growth kinetics on different surfaces, and allowing control over the deposition location, fill direction, and growth rate inside the cavity, as shown in FIG. 3. Generally, in some embodiments, it is desirable to cause deposition to occur from growth that extends upwardly from the bottom of the cavity. The bottom up deposition may reduce the tendency to form overhangs and/or seams in the deposits that are undesirable.

In some embodiments, the layer 18 may be an adhesion promoting layer to adhere the layer 24. Thus, while layer 18 may be titanium nitride, the layer 24 may be tungsten in one embodiment. In one embodiment, the layer 18 increases the adhesion between a silicon dioxide dielectric 14 and the layer 24.

For example, in one embodiment, an adhesion promoting layer 18 may be deposited in the cavity 16 at the stage shown in FIG. 2, using physical vapor deposition or chemical vapor deposition, to mention two examples. This may be followed by a pattern dependent etch or polish that removes the adhesion promoting layer from the sidewall portion 28, while leaving the adhesion promoting layer at the bottom of the cavity.

Then, when a metal or other layer 24 is selectively deposited, for example by chemical vapor deposition, and directional growth occurs from the bottom of the cavity upwardly, as shown in FIG. 3. This upward growth is due at least in part to the fact that there is no adhesion promoting layer 18 on the sidewall portion 28 and, therefore, the deposited layer 24 does not adhere to the sidewall portion 28, in one embodiment, to the extent that it adheres to the layer 18. This selective deposition may result in bottom up deposition in some embodiments.

As another example, the adhesion promoting layer 18 may be deposited as described above, followed by the deposition of a thin metal nucleation layer. For example, the metal nucleation layer may be a pulsed nucleation layer in one embodiment. Thus, as an example, the pulsed nucleation layer 26, shown in FIG. 4, may be a tungsten nucleation layer.

Following the deposition of the thin nucleation layer 26, a pattern dependent etch or polish may be used to remove the nucleation and adhesion promoting layers 26 and 18 from the upper sidewall portion 28, while leaving nucleation and adhesion promoting layers on the bottom of the cavity, as shown in FIG. 5. Thereafter, the same metal as used for the nucleation layer may be deposited or grown using selective deposition and directional growth from the bottom of the cavity. Again, this upward growth results where the nucleation layer and the adhesion promoting layer are present, which encourages growth of the deposited material, such as tungsten.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 6, a layer 24, such as metal, is deposited starting from the bottom of the cavity 16 and moving upwardly because of the presence of the layer 26 at the bottom of the cavity, but not at its upper extent. As a result, the metal does not begin to grow near the top of the cavity, but, preferentially, grows from the bottom. Because the upper sidewall portion 28 of the cavity is cleared or exposed, metal growth does not occur preferentially in this area, but, rather, fills up via selective deposition from the bottom, as opposed to filling from the top or from the sides of the top of the cavity. Filling from the top may have the tendency to close off the cavity, resulting in undesirable void formation.

In some embodiments, cavity filling may be improved without the need to widen the open upper end of the cavity. This may be important in many densely populated technologies, such as semiconductor memory and logic circuitry.

References throughout this specification to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one implementation encompassed within the present invention. Thus, appearances of the phrase “one embodiment” or “in an embodiment” are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristics may be instituted in other suitable forms other than the particular embodiment illustrated and all such forms may be encompassed within the claims of the present application.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention. 

1. A method comprising: forming a lining in a cavity having an open top and a closed bottom; removing the lining near the open top while leaving the lining on the closed bottom; and depositing material in said cavity over said lining beginning from the bottom.
 2. The method of claim 1 including forming a cavity that is a high aspect ratio cavity.
 3. The method of claim 1 including lining the cavity with a substance that encourages the deposition of said material.
 4. The method of claim 3 including forming a lining of an adhesion promoting layer that promotes adhesion by said material.
 5. The method of claim 3 including depositing a metal nucleation layer on said lining.
 6. The method of claim 1 including using a pattern dependent etch to remove said lining from said cavity near the top of said cavity while leaving said material covering the bottom of said cavity.
 7. The method of claim 1 including using a polish to remove said lining from said top of said cavity.
 8. The method of claim 1 including selectively depositing said material.
 9. A method comprising: exposing an upper sidewall portion of the cavity while covering a bottom portion of said cavity; and selectively depositing a material on said covering relative to said exposed upper sidewall portion.
 10. The method of claim 9 including covering the bottom portion of said cavity with an adhesion promotion layer and selectively depositing a material on said adhesion promoting material.
 11. The method of claim 10 including depositing said material from the bottom portion of said cavity towards the upper sidewall portion of said cavity.
 12. The method of claim 9 including forming a conformal coating in said cavity to cover said cavity and then selectively removing the upper portion of said covering to expose the upper sidewall portion of said cavity.
 13. The method of claim 12 including one of pattern dependent etching or polishing to selectively remove said coating.
 14. A semiconductor structure comprising: a substrate; a dielectric layer over said substrate; a cavity formed in said dielectric layer, said cavity having a bottom portion and upper sidewall portion; and a conformal lining in said cavity, said conformal lining covering the bottom portion of said cavity while leaving the upper sidewall portion of said cavity uncovered.
 15. The structure of claim 14 including a cavity filling material, said cavity filling material contacting the upper sidewall portion of said cavity and said lining.
 16. The structure of claim 15 wherein said filling material is a metal and said lining is a metal nitride.
 17. The structure of claim 15 wherein said lining is an adhesion promoting layer which promotes adhesion of said filling material.
 18. The structure of claim 14 including a nucleation layer over said lining.
 19. The structure of claim 14 including a selectively deposited filler material in said cavity, said filler material selectively deposited in the bottom portion of the cavity.
 20. The structure of claim 19, said lining being a material which increases the adherence of said filler material to said dielectric layer. 